The scholarship programme
Tutoring that doesn’t depend on the family budget
Funded places for families for whom cost is the barrier — same tutors, same lessons, same standards. Here’s how the programme is designed, why it matters, and how to apply.
How the programme works
One donation pool, fully funded places
Each scholarship covers a set number of sessions each term — currently 10 funded sessions per award. A place is a finite grant of tutoring time, not open-ended support, and each award states exactly what it covers.
Every donation goes into one pool, and places are offered as the pool covers them — each one paid in full before it’s offered, so no family is left half-supported. If we can’t offer you a place straight away, your application stays in and we come back to you.
Who it’s for
Families where cost is the barrier
Scholarship places are for families who want tutoring but can’t stretch to it. If any of these describe you, you’re exactly who the programme is for:
- Families holding a Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card
- Refugee and newly arrived families
- Families in regional and remote Australia
- Any family for whom paying a tutor’s rate simply isn’t possible right now
Not sure you fit, but tutoring is out of reach? Apply anyway and tell us your situation in a sentence — we read every application.
What a place includes
A funded place, not a lesser one
A scholarship place is the same tutoring a paying family books — funded for you, up to the sessions your award covers this term. Every place includes:
- The same verified, WWCC-checked tutors any paying family works with
- A set number of funded sessions with your matched tutor — the tutor is paid their full rate from the fund
- Free access to the learning resource library, the same materials tutors run sessions from
- Lessons, progress and messages in one place on the learning platform
- No fees and no lock-in — and a free re-match if the fit isn’t right
A place is a finite grant, not open-ended tutoring. When your funded sessions are used, you’re welcome to apply again.
How it’s funded
Paid for by donated money and donated time
Two kinds of giving keep the fund going. People donate money, and tutors donate part of their weekly teaching time. Every gift lands in the one pool:
- Every dollar donated goes straight into the scholarship fund — any amount, any time, one step
- Donated money pays the tutor their full rate to teach a student whose family can’t cover it
- Tutors who give teach scholarship sessions at no charge to the family — an hour a week adds up fast
- A place is only offered once the fund covers the whole of it, so no family is left half-supported
How to apply
Applying takes a minute
Your name and an email address are all we need to start. Here’s how a place is awarded:
- You apply here — a name and an email to start
- A person reads every application — no hardship essays, ever
- We never ask for income documents or Centrelink numbers through this website
- Places are awarded as the fund covers them — if we can’t offer one straight away, your application stays in and we come back to you
Why this matters
The gap this is built to narrow
Access to good tutoring in Australia tracks family income — and the learning gap it leaves widens as students get older. The evidence below is why every place is paid for in full and shared as widely as the pool allows.
10 mths → 2.5 yrs
The learning gap between students from lower- and higher-education families grows from about ten months in Year 3 to about two and a half years by Year 9.
~2.5 years
High-achieving students in disadvantaged schools fall roughly two and a half years behind high-achievers in advantaged schools by Year 9 — despite performing similarly back in Year 3.
7 year levels
In a typical Year 9 class, students can be working at up to seven different year-level equivalents — the reason one-size teaching alone can’t close the gap.
Income decides
Private tutoring “can entrench unfairness by widening the achievement gap between high and low-income families, as socioeconomic status often determines whether parents or guardians can access tutoring.”
Source: University of Sydney (Zunica & Reid O’Connor), The Australian Educational Researcher, 2025
1 in 7
Tutoring is now used by at least one in seven Australian students, with as many as 80,000 private tutors working in 2024. It has become mainstream — but mainly for the families who can pay. A donation-funded programme is our answer to that: fair access, shared as widely as the pool allows.
Source: University of Sydney, 2025
What a place is for
What scholarship success looks like
What every scholarship place is designed to deliver.
A scholar gets the tutor and the funded sessions their award covers — and a parent can open the learning platform any evening and see exactly how it’s going.
When a place ends, the family knows well before the last session — and knows exactly how to apply again.
And some of our first scholars, years from now, come back — as tutors who donate their own time.
Apply for a place
Apply for a place
Your name and an email address — that's all we need. A person reads every application and comes back to you about a place.
What we ask for
Your name and your email — nothing else. No documents, no income details, no Centrelink numbers. A person reads your application and replies to you directly about a place.